25 Chapter 25

-[Marley]-

-[Liam]-

With a pop, he appeared in front of Annie's father's home. The aftermath of the explosion could be seen even from Liberio, panic spreading to the citizens who ran around like headless chickens.

A mushroom cloud of smoke and soot hung over the nation. Walking calmly and ignoring the panic, he forced the door open with a bit of ice magic on the locks.

Opening it, he found a panicked Leonhart pacing inside. "You! What's going on!? What are you doing here? Where's Annie?"

"Calm down and pack your things. We're leaving." Liam said as he shut the door behind him.

"Leaving? Leaving to where!? What's going on!?" The man asked in panic and confusion.

"I'll explain later." Liam repeated, not budging.

Seeing this, Leonhart was forced to calm himself and do as he was told. While he went to start packing, Liam took a look outside, seeing airships in the air heading towards the site of the explosion.

'After Marley's failure in the Paradis operation, the Middle East union saw the opportunity and declared war. Assuming they didn't die in the explosion, their spies should be working out how to report this new development.' He recounted.

Due to their overdependence on the power of the titans, Marley's military tactics were outdated enough for the union to fight back and that was with the Armored and Jaw titan in their possession.

Both titans along with the colossal and female titan were no longer in their grasp. They still had the Beast and Cart titan but that alone wouldn't give them confidence in their victory, especially not after this debacle.

They'd be forced to either call on the Warhammer titan in the Tybur's possession or attempt to retrieve their titans on Paradis. Either way, it would work well for him.

"I'm done packing." He turned around to see Leonhart with a box in his hand. "Now can you tell me what's going on?!"

"Later." At far higher speeds than he could fathom, Liam was behind him, delivering a blow to the back of his head, knocking him out.

Making an ice clone, he nodded as it grabbed the man before disappearing with a use of [Apparition].

Taking up the box, he threw it into his inventory before facing the window once more. 'Now that that's taken care of, let's test this theory.'

Appearing on a building outside Liberio with a pop, his eyes searched the streets. The panicking civilians didn't register his appearance as he appeared behind the crowd, sticking a syringe into the neck of a wealthy looking man at the tail end of the crowd before disappearing again.

[Apparition] had become his new favorite skill, standing at level 48. He could do quick consecutive jumps with his current level of proficiency.

*Boom!*

Within moments there was a burst of energy from the man, exploding outwards as he was transformed into a pure titan.

"So it works on Marleyans as well." He muttered with slight satisfaction.

"Aaaahhhh!!!" People screamed and scurried away at the sudden appearance of a titan.

The people of Marley were not the same as the people of Paradis who lived in fear of the titans everyday and so were even afraid as they attempted to flee from the rampaging titan.

Unlike the standard titan serum that targeted the Eldian genetic marker, his serum didn't discriminate between victims. [Alchemy] spat in the face of this world's science.

'Zeke or Pieck will probably come and deal with this. My work here is done.' He thought as he disappeared with a pop.

-[Erwin]-

He didn't know how it happened.

In all his years as the commander of the survey corps, this had to be their most successful one yet.

There were barely any casualties from when they left till now as they made their way back to the walls. They had gone more than half way before having to turn back.

As much as they were motivated to continue due to how much progress had been made, it would all be for naught if they didn't get back to the walls before nighttime.

Marley's operation had been stopped before it progressed enough to wipe them out. Once they were able to reclaim Wall Maria and Shiganshina, they would be able to focus on a proper counterattack.

Frighteningly enough, the key to all of that wasn't himself, Annie or Eren. It was the teen who was responsible for their progress.

If they managed to keep him on their side, Paradis Island could flourish even more than the very nations that tried to attack them.

It was only a matter of time.

-[Mitras]-

In the royal palace, four individuals sat in front of the throne where an old bearded man with white hair sat.

The one thing the four individuals had in common was the worried expression on their faces.

"Reiss, that coward!" Aurille cursed, slamming his fist on the arm rest of the chair.

The others grit their teeth in frustration and agreement. "He went and locked himself away after his little pet disappeared. What happened to the soldiers we sent to bring him back?" Deltoff asked.

"They never came back." Gerald, the third man answered in obvious discontentment.

"What are we going to do now? We have reason to believe that Eren Yeager is the one in possession of the founding titan but it will all be for naught if Reiss won't cooperate." Roderich complained.

"If he's going to lock himself up then he shouldn't bother coming back. After all, there is another option…Historia Reiss." Aurille proposed.

The others had matching expressions of realization when they realized his point. They didn't need Rod Reiss, they just needed his daughter.

The coward had already planned on eventually doing it, too afraid to become a titan himself. "But will we be able to control her? We were banking on Rod doing that seeing as how he is her father." Deltoff pondered.

"No need to worry about that." Aurille said, gaining a confident look. "I have a spy in the survey corps. The girl seems to have been smitten by our other target, Liam Ross."

"If we get the boy on our side, Historia will naturally follow." Gerald concluded with an enlightened expression. "The royal government's word is supreme. He'll have no choice but to obey if he wants to live."

Though they sounded confident, they had yet to figure out what happened to the men they sent after him earlier. They disappeared, never to be seen again as did the others they sent.

*Pop* *Thud*

A large object fell in the middle of their gathering, shocking them as they scrambled out of their seats.

"What?!"

"What just happened?!"

"Where did it come from?!" Their shock didn't stop there as they realized that whatever it was wasn't moving.

Swallowing his fear, Aurille decided to take the first step, moving towards the object. Getting closer, a metallic smell hit his nose as he finally saw what the 'object' was.

"W-what the hell…?" He muttered in shock as the other three creeped behind him, looking over his shoulder to get a view.

"W-w-who is that?" Deltoff managed to stutter out.

On the floor lay the dead body of a dark haired man in the military uniform, the survey corps insignia on the front. The man's face was twisted in what looked to be shock, staying that way even after death.

"M-my s-spy…" Aurille muttered as blood continued to leak from the hole where the man's heart was supposed to be.

"Get someone to clean this up!!!"

-[Underground Chapel]-

-[Liam]-

'Did they really think they could spy on me so easily?' He thought as he appeared inside his base.

He had thought of the possibility of there being a spy in the corps long ago. It was a recurring method governments used no matter the era or world. Placing a spy in the survey corps was paramount to suicide seeing as how there was an almost 80% chance that they would die.

That didn't matter to the government seeing as how they weren't the ones dying. They could always threaten more people into becoming their spies.

With [Emotion Manipulation] to sense emotions and [Observe] act based on those emotions, it wasn't hard to find the spy.

Truthfully, he found him long ago but had allowed him to carry on. Only after they revealed that titans were formerly humans did he decide to kill him on his way to report his findings, storing his body in his inventory.

He didn't need the government knowing what they knew until Erwin himself revealed it to the public, raising the survey corps reputation.

Looking at the unconscious form of Mr Leonhart laid unceremoniously on the floor with his belongings, he felt his ice clone returning into the walls.

"So they're finally back." He muttered as he moved deeper into the cave to the workshop he had his clones set up.